anglers, however, reported their catches within the first few days after 

 the season opened, a time when Mr. Fowler was too busy to do more than 

 record catch data. It is presumed that natural bait was more commonly used 

 at this time of the season because the water was high and stocked trout 

 were common. 



A unique criticism was voiced by many of the local fishermen who were 

 so apt in catching trout all season. They felt that fishing quality in the 

 Little Pigeon has declined to a point where it takes too much time to obtain 

 a limit catch. Each said, in effect, "There's plenty of fish left> but not 

 like there was a few years ago. Then I could catch my limit in 30 minutes 

 or an hour or so and get on home. Now it takes me an hour and one-half to 

 three hours to do it and it isn't hardly worth it to waste such time for 7 

 trout. I vote for a fly fishing law so the fish will com 1 - back like they 

 were; then I can lay off a bit from chores now and then, ccme catch my limit 

 in a few minutes and get on out of here." 



Many of the local fishermen are unusually skillful in using very small 

 flies and tiny bait lures, yet at the same time the concepts of sport or 

 recreation in trout fishing may be lacking in them. They want a catch of 

 fish more than sport and with only a very small expenditure of time* Time 

 and again this season, some would be in the Park less than one hour and 

 leave with their limits of wild trout. On the other hand, the desire of the 

 local anglers to see fishing conditions improve is very real. Their reaction 

 to this creel census demonstrated a keen interest and a willingness to 

 cooperate in matters concerned with the study, improvement, and conserva- 

 tion of the fishery resource. 



Conclusions 



The streams of the Little Pigeon River watershed continued to provide 

 fair quality trout fishing during the 1953 season. According to our creel 

 census data, there were 59 anglers per mile of fishable water, 33 of whom 

 were successful and caught 16 8 legal trout per mile at a rate of l»u fish 

 per hour. These figures compare well with those reported for managed trout 

 waters in other areas. 



A total of 1,200 fishermen reported at the creel checking stati 

 and 3,Uu3 trout were tallied. The mean hourly catch rate for all anglers 

 was 0.8 fish; the average creel was 2.9 trout and weighed 10 ounces. The 

 station attendant estimated that our records include two-thirds of the 

 actual numbers of fishermen and trout captured, that there were actually 

 about 1,8C0 anglers on the watershed and about 5,000 trout caught during 

 1953. 



Few large trout were taken in the Little Pigeon this season; two 15.5- 

 inch rainbows were the largest registered by fishermen. A 13.7-inch male 



25 



